AYTTO, in partnership with NYC Dept. of Ed and NCTTA, is currently recruiting assistant coaches for NYC PSAL high school table tennis team as well as coaches for middle school programs for school year 2018-2019.

Think about the positives:

Most University club sports need community service hours and this one qualifies

A great addition for those looking to supplement a resume!

They *might pay you!

First work assignment will start in October. Time needed is usually two days a week from 2:30 pm to 6 pm on weekdays. Those who are selected can earn community service credit and/or coaching fees. Please submit your contact as well as your playing and coaching experience to thomaswhu@yahoo.com

One way to get the 2018-19 table tennis season off to an incredible start is to take part in a new tournament being launched.

The date is September 29 at the Zing Table Tennis Center in Easthampton, Massachusetts. The fabulous place is Easthampton’s Keystone Mill Building where men and women gather for league play every Tuesday evening.

This newly announced NCTTA pre-season tournament is as good as it gets for college players in late September.

Justin D’Antonio, the NCTTA’s Upstate New York,Central division director, is delighted to help get this one organized. He’s worked hard in August to get the word out to players, coaches and fans about this inaugural event.

He dubs it an Inter-Regional event. Players in the Northeast Region and the Great Lakes are those he’s targeting with invites. Bring a paddle and a table tennis uniform and have a little fun that Saturday. It’s well-timed with upcoming Fall NCTTA tournaments just down the road.
“Let’s make this tournament a success so that this NCTTA event become a yearly thing,’’ D’Antonio says.

In the real world, Justin works as an analyst with Amplify Energy in Liverpool, New York. No doubt, he’s bringing lots of energy to this pre-season tournament in the Northeast.

Pre-season action is nothing new to the NCTTA family. In recent years, table tennis players at Ohio State battled Michigan in the pre-season Friendship Cup. The Buckeyes and Wolverines played their hearts out with paddles in hand. Afterwards, they enjoyed fellowship time at an area restaurant once the games were over. Some of the players from the fierce Big Ten rivals actually ended up becoming friends!

Teams at schools like Florida State University also have a history of organizing tournaments pre-season and around the year to boost skills of student-athletes.

The Inter-Regional Tournament won’t involve the biggest college rivalries in the USA.
Justin hopes to see college players from as many teams in the Northeast and Great Lakes Region sign up. He’s even distributed a flyer that he sent to regional and divisional directors along with the NCTTA leadership team this summer.

Players, the invite is out there to get in the swing of things at the Zing Table Tennis Center. It’s going to be one terrific Saturday of college table tennis!

“We definitely encourage this type of pre-season competition,’’ says NCTTA President Willy Leparulo. “The more such events like this, the better. It will be a great tune-up to the 2018-19 season.’’

Please submit your votes by email to elections@nctta.org, with the
following:
1. Your name
2. Your school
3. For each position, Yes or No, in terms of whether you are in support of the candidate
Even though only one candidate is listed for each position, votes need to be
submitted for each of them. If you wish to abstain from voting for a
particular position, then indicate "abstain" for that position.

The deadline for voting is 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday, June 12.
Only one vote per school will be counted. Invalid votes will not be counted.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask at the email address given above.
Thanks for your participation!

To NCTTA school club presidents, members, alumni, coaches, and supporters:

The time has come for elections for certain positions on the NCTTA Board of Directors. For those of you interested in further involvement with NCTTA, here is your opportunity to play a crucial role in the direction of the organization, as well as that of college table tennis in the US and beyond.

These are the positions that are open for election. They are 4-year positions.

Vice President External

Treasurer

Athlete Representative

Please remember to read the NCTTA bylaws for qualifications to run and the description for each position:

Candidates must submit a Statement of Intent to elections@nctta.org to be approved to run for the NCTTA Board of Directors, Deadine is June 5th.

On or around June 6th, the statements will be posted and approved candidates will be announced.

At that time, voting will begin, and will take place until June 12th. Voting will be done by presidents (or representatives) of each NCTTA member school; each school will have 1 vote for each position.

Training for newly-elected Board members will occur immediately after election is complete and terms will officially begin on July 1.

(Pictured above, one of UC Davis coaches, Jace Jackson working with star woman player Aditi Chodri) Pic by James Wang

NCTTA's Coaching Committee has been busy at work setting up yet another College Table Tennis Certification training. For Coaches and fans the first training was last September at the University of Iowa.

NCTTA will send two trainers, Alan Chu and Willy Leparulo to conduct the training. Leparulo says, "I am super excited to be able to bring our talented coaches in NCTTA this training. Alan and I went through it last September and can't wait to meet the new crop of coaches. We are very lucky to be at Zing! Table Tennis Center."

Zing! Table Tennis center is situated very close to 5 well known colleges and the UMass Table Tennis club team practices at Zing as well!

This is open to all current NCTTA Coaches and or others wanting to get involved in Collegiate Table Tennis coaching. This training will also count for USATT Club Coaching Certification.

Every year after the Championships NCTTA celebrates "the best of the best" of the year. NCTTA will award VISA gift cards to each winnes of each category!

(NYU winner of most improved, coach of the year and male athlete of the year pictured above)

This year's winners are:

Male Athlete of the Year: Tom Feng (NYU)

Female Athlete of the Year: Yue Wu (Texas Wesleyan)

Rookie of the Year: Kai Zhang (Binghamton)

Coach of the Year: Yanjun Gao (NYU)

Rookie Team: Bryn Mawr College

Most Improved Team: New York University

Division Director of the Year: Doru Gheorge (Texas Division)

Regional Director of the Year: Ryan Hsu (West Region)

This is what one nominator wrote about Coach Gao from NYU, "This is the second year of Gao being the coach for NYU, and the first time he led the team in the Nationals. Coaching for two very competitive teams and a numbers of players was very difficult and exhausting, but Gao would always be standing there behind and providing vital support for his players."

Ryan Hsu, Regional Director for the West had many positive comments too including "Very accommodating to all teams and very efficient. Runs the tournament very quickly with little delays and ensures that all teams get enough matches. Ryan is also very kind and friendly all the time. Extremely responsive and responds to inquiries extremely quickly."

(Picture of Qingwei Sun and Xiang He of Mississippi College, by Enoch Wong)

Mississippi College's table tennis team fought for every point, but came up short against the new champs, New York University.

Led by TEAM USA Olympian Tom Feng, the New Yorkers edged their MC foes three games to two Saturday in the semi-finals at the 2018 national collegiate championships. The event at the Round Rock Sports Center in Texas attracted 276 outstanding college players from schools across the USA and Canada.

Putting up a good fight all weekend, the MC Choctaws took home a third-place trophy. MC team members and Coach Liang Johnson were honored at a table tennis banquet Saturday night. Hours earlier, MC standouts Ali He and Qing Wei Sun, both natives of China, came up a couple of points short in their dazzling doubles match with NYU. The games attracted a big crowd of fans watching some amazing shots.

Next up, NYU defeated perennial champion Texas Wesleyan University in a thrilling match decided in doubles. Playing in Round Rock, near Austin, Texas Wesleyan brought many of their fans cheering the Rams team from Fort Worth. Texas Wesleyan has captured an amazing 13 coed team championships since 2003. Texas Wesleyan's talented Lady Rams squad captured the women's team title at the Round Rock championships.

Prior to the NYU triumph, Mississippi College made history as the only school in the nation to knock off Texas Wesleyan. That happened in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The MC Choctaws prevailed by two points over a potent Rams team in April 2015 to win its only college table table tennis national championship.

In 2016, the Mississippi College squad finished No. 2 in the nation, and came in 4th place in 2017.

"The competition keeps getting stronger every year at schools from New York to California and as far north as Canada,'' says Andy Kanengiser, the Mississippi College team sponsor.

"We hoped for a first-place finish, but getting third was quite an accomplishment,'' added Kanengiser, who's in his 11th season as the MC team sponsor.

Coach Johnson and his players "deserve a great deal of credit for their hard work all season,'' he said.

At the April 20-22 tournament in Round Rock, MC defeated such schools as Maryland, Minnesota, Brandeis University and Northeastern University of Boston. When all was said and done, MC's third-place finish was better than such schools as the University of Florida, Northwestern, and Texas.

The 2018 iSet national table tennis championships wrapped up Sunday with singles action that saw several MC players competing. Prior to the tournament, Tomo Yoshitomi was ranked the nation's third best men's singles player at the collegiate level.

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association oversees the Olympic sport played at more than 175 colleges across the USA and Canada. The NCTTA's 2019 championships will be played next April in Greensboro, North Carolina.

The 2018 iSET College Table Tennis Championships is hosted by theNational Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB and is one of the premier table tennis tournaments in North America featuring 6 events: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by iSET, Double Happiness, Gerflor, Double Fish and USA Table Tennis

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes intercollegiate competition throughout North America.www.nctta.org

About USA Table Tennis

Headquartered in Colorado Springs, USATT is the national organizing body for table tennis in the United States, serving 9,000+ members and nearly 300 clubs. USATT sanctions 200+ events a year including the US Open and US Nationals. USATT is affiliated with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), as well as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).www.usatt.org

University of Texas senior Tina Wang is wrapping up her career as a Longhorns table tennis player.

For Wang, 21, finishing the season as a player at the 2018 iSet national collegiate table tennis championships, is a terrific way to wrap things up.

The Dallas area resident is surrounded by UT teammates and friends at the lively tournament at the Round Rock Sports Center in late April.

Her final showing as a college player for the UT Longhorns on a national stage is bittersweet. There were many nice memories playing for Texas table tennis teams the past three years. But she and other members of the NCTTA Class of 2018 have big dreams ahead.

A UT business major who graduates in May, Tina will move to McLean, Virginia where she will work in project management with the Capital One bank.

A native of Taiwan who moved to the USA as a young girl, Wang played the Olympic sport for 11 years. If time permits, she will compete in Virginia and the DC area. The Allen, Texas resident brings much to the table on & off the court.

But on Saturday afternoon, Tina was just happy to enjoy the moment with friends as she waited in the lunch line at the classy tournament sports complex. The Round Rock Sports Center is only a 15 minute ride fromn the UT campus at Austin. So there were plenty of UT-Austin fans roaming around to cheer the Longhorns.

The UCLA Bruins fan base in the Lone Star State isn't nearly as strong. A table tennis standout for UCLA since he was a freshman four years ago, David Zeng, 22, is closing out his collegiate career in table tennis as a member of the Class of 2018.

An environmental science major who grew up in inner city Oakland, California, Zeng is thinking ahead. After graduating from UCLA in June, he plans to move to Mexico to learn Spanish. Getting involved in efforts to protect the planet's environment and taking part in social causes are things on his post-UCLA agenda. And he wants to travel.

David grew up playing table tennis with his parents in California, then honed his skills at an Oakland recreation center, starting as a 10-year-old. Table tennis, he said, "is a big part of my life.''

Zeng joined his UCLA teammates at NCTTA national championships in Eau Claire, Wisconsin in 2015 and Round Rock in 2016. Then, it was back to Eau Claire in 2017, and finally Round Rock in 2018. Quite a run for David Zeng and his UCLA teammate, senior Nathaniel Chu, 21, a computer science major from Milpitas, California. David Zeng served as the UCLA club president this year.

NCTTA leaders extend their best wishes to others in the Class of 2018, including Lindenwood University senior Jake Arciniega. The 29-year-old Traverse City, Michigan native played for the first time at the NCTTA Nationals this month.

An interactive media and web design major on the Saint Charles, Missouri campus, Jake graduates from Lindenwood on May 5. Once the tournament ends Sunday, he turns his focus to a bunch of job interviews next wek. The four-year Lindenwood player should be an asset to the competive and creative world of web design.

Summing up his college table tennis days on the powerhouse Lindenwood Lions team, Jake says he loved competing with "a cool and good group of guys. I learned a lot. It's been a great experience.'' Lindenwood's coed team is diverse with players from Guyana, Brazil, Nepal, China and the USA.

Jarol Duerksen and his wife, Leah, who run the NCTTA practice tables at tournaments each year, say they will miss the soon-to-be college grads. The Iowa City couple hopes the players stay involved as NCTTA volunteers down the road.

Graduation is coming soon for two hard-working University of Minnesota table tennis veterans. Head coach John Tranter says it's been amazing to see two graduate students compete on the talented squad and work on their doctorates.

But that's what Minnesota players Gautham Gampa and Pin-Kaung Lai did. A native of Hyderabad, India, Gampa, 25, is working on a degree in pharmaceutics. A native of Taipei,Taiwan, Lai, 29, is seeking his degree in chemical engineering at the school in Minneapolis.

NCTTA President Willy Leparulo is delighted to see all 276 players from schools in the USA & Canada compete at the April 20-22 championships.

"But we especially want to thank the Class of 2018 as graduation day nears. Congrats and best wishes ahead to these stellar student-athletes,'' Leparulo said. "Doors will always be open to our grads to serve as NCTTA volunteers in future years.''

The 2018 iSET College Table Tennis Championships is hosted by theNational Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB and is one of the premier table tennis tournaments in North America featuring 6 events: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by iSET, Double Happiness, Gerflor, Double Fish and USA Table Tennis

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes intercollegiate competition throughout North America.www.nctta.org

About USA Table Tennis

Headquartered in Colorado Springs, USATT is the national organizing body for table tennis in the United States, serving 9,000+ members and nearly 300 clubs. USATT sanctions 200+ events a year including the US Open and US Nationals. USATT is affiliated with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), as well as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).www.usatt.org

So what will do after they graduate?
The Annas have their plans all set.

First Peace Corps and then there’s more,

They’ll help volunteer at NCTTA events.

The 2018 iSET College Table Tennis Championships is hosted by theNational Collegiate Table Tennis Association and the Round Rock CVB and is one of the premier table tennis tournaments in North America featuring 6 events: Men’s and Women’s Singles and Doubles, and Men’s/Coed Teams, Women’s Teams. The event is sponsored by iSET, Double Happiness, Gerflor, Double Fish and USA Table Tennis

The National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) is a non-profit organization established exclusively for promoting the sport of table tennis at the college level. As the national governing body for college table tennis in the United States and Canada, NCTTA organizes intercollegiate competition throughout North America.www.nctta.org

About USA Table Tennis

Headquartered in Colorado Springs, USATT is the national organizing body for table tennis in the United States, serving 9,000+ members and nearly 300 clubs. USATT sanctions 200+ events a year including the US Open and US Nationals. USATT is affiliated with the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), as well as the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).www.usatt.org